Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 361
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 361
“What a shameless bastard. Now that you’re out of danger, you’re saying you won’t pay?”
Lee Han looked at Raphadael with disbelief.
“I can’t believe there’s such a conscienceless guy… Are you really a knight?”
Gainando also looked at Raphadael with disbelief. Raphadael exploded and shouted.
“Who said I won’t pay back! I’ll pay! I said I’ll pay!”
“The way you’re denying it so strongly makes it even more suspicious.”
“Shut up!”
Raphadael snapped at Gainando and whirled around.
“As expected, those White Tiger Tower guys have such tempers…”
“Those guys even beat up upperclassmen when they’re pissed off.”
Lee Han paused at the dark magic school upperclassmen’s murmuring.
He remembered when he went to learn water elemental magic behind the mountain range with Yumidifus and ambushed the 3rd year upperclassmen to steal their belongings.
“…White Tiger Tower students aren’t that bad.”
“Are you covering for your friend? How kind.”
“But Wardanaz, how is it that you, a Blue Dragon Tower student, get along so well with White Tiger Tower?”
Lee Han answered with a fake smile.
“We all came here to learn magic, so there’s no reason to fight each other just because we’re from different towers.”
“…Is this guy really an Einrogard student?”
“That’s weird? Did the rules change starting this year?”
Lee Han gave a textbook answer, but it didn’t work on the upperclassmen.
Unfortunately, the upperclassmen had already become thoroughly twisted due to their Einrogard life.
‘How pitiful. They’ve all become twisted.’
Unlike himself who was very normal, Lee Han truly pitied the twisted upperclassmen.
* * *
After Professor Mortum’s long speech (which started with life stories that would make any dark mage shed tears and ended with the tragedy of Mudbury Fortress where countless dark mages’ tears were buried) ended, the dark magic school students began sharing their own stories.
“I’m trying to summon a Hroekall this time, but it’s difficult. It’s an undead that lives underwater after all.”
“Aquatic undead are harder. Their poison is strong so defense is difficult too. What are you using as bait?”
“I’m throwing rotten meat at it, but this bastard just eats it and absolutely refuses to make a contract with me. Ah. Should I look for a different undead realm…”
“Senior Diret. Will you be going to 5th year?”
“I’m thinking about it. It seems like Einrogard would be better if I want to continue my current research.”
Diret answered and turned his gaze to Lee Han.
He had been curious since earlier but hadn’t had the chance.
“But junior. What’s this about professors fighting in the streets…”
“Senior Diret! I have a concern. Should I stay at Einrogard next year too?”
“…Shall we have a separate consultation later?”
“My original goal was to inherit the gravedigger position around the village. But I think I’m already skilled enough to inherit it, and my parents seem to want me to come back and settle down… I can still do research there, but… Ah. It’s difficult. Really.”
Diret swallowed his disappointment and comforted his junior who was worrying about his career path.
“Think once more about the magical research you want to do…”
“Senior. I received a suspicious offer this time. They’re looking for a dark mage skilled in curse magic, but they won’t tell me what to curse. Should I accept this offer?”
“No. Don’t accept offers that don’t specify details. Especially for dark mages…”
“Senior. I’m short on silver coins to buy a new staff, and adventurers in Rangyen are looking for a dark mage. Would it be okay to participate?”
‘Interesting.’
Lee Han listened intently to the conversation the upperclassmen were having.
Next to him, Gainando was playing mage cards with Ymirg and getting beaten senseless, his face pale.
“Th… This isn’t cheating, is it?! You cheated, didn’t you?!”
“If, if I had cheated, you would have lost even more miserably…”
“Lee Han! Lee Han! Please referee! This isn’t cheating, is it?”
“No. You lost because you’re bad at it.”
“You weren’t even watching!”
Lee Han let Gainando’s words go in one ear and out the other as he moved his quill pen.
Seeing Lee Han writing diligently, Professor Mortum asked with puzzlement.
“Cough. Mr. Wardanaz. It’s not like you’ll be taking requests during vacation, so why are you writing that down?”
“But I will be taking them?”
“…”
Professor Mortum looked at Lee Han with a gaze that said ‘What a strange and bizarre fellow.’
“I think I understand why the Principal likes you… Cough. You’re similar indeed.”
“No, that’s too…!”
Lee Han exploded with indignation without realizing it.
It was an insult that even Lee Han, skilled at emotional control, found hard to bear.
“Too?”
“…generous of you to say!”
“Is that so? Cough. I thought you might feel bad about it… Well, even considering that, Lord Gonadaltes is quite the archmage.”
Professor Mortum seemed to already know well about the Skeleton Principal’s eccentric personality.
‘Well, anyone who’s around him couldn’t help but know.’
It was a personality you’d have to notice whether you had eyes or not.
“Cough. If you like working during vacation… There’s going to be an overlap phenomenon soon, how about participating in that?”
“Professor?!”
The dark magic school upperclassmen were more shocked than Lee Han.
“Professor! He’s a 1st year!”
“A 1st year who faced the Frost Giant King and survived… Cough. There’s no problem with him participating.”
“The Frost Giant King?”
“Why would a 1st year face… How did he face… Has Einrogard gone mad…? No, it was already mad…”
At the sight of the murmuring juniors, Diret hung his head in shame and covered it with his wings.
He resolved that when he returned to school, he would bury Cohorti and Kumandas upside down in the cemetery!
“By overlap, do you mean the phenomenon where realms overlap?”
“That’s right. Wow. You’re really amazing.”
One of the upperclassmen exclaimed in admiration and began explaining.
Originally, for mages to visit other realms, quite complex magic was required.
The magic circles that Professor Milay, who taught summoning magic, had set up were magic circles containing profound wisdom despite looking simple.
Even after visiting, there were considerable restrictions. It was natural since they were forcibly visiting a world that wasn’t originally theirs.
However, there were moments when such means and restrictions disappeared.
When the other dimension overlapped and mixed with this dimension.
Lee Han had something that came to mind too.
‘Is it like how it changed during the Frost Giant King incident?’
At that time, the upper corridor of Einrogard was both the school and somewhere else that wasn’t the school.
The frost giants’ dimension was overlapping, so the blade-like cold spread to the surroundings.
This phenomenon could also occur with the undead realm.
“We recently found a place where the undead realm will soon overlap. The mana is really stagnant there.”
“If it’s stagnant, shouldn’t we dispel it?”
Lee Han asked, recalling what he had experienced while carrying out the gravedigger request last time.
Stagnant mana meant that abnormal phenomena were more likely to occur.
“In principle, yes, but if it’s accumulated to that degree, it would be a shame to just dispel it. That’s also an opportunity.”
“…”
Lee Han looked at the upperclassmen suspiciously.
The upperclassmen realized the meaning of that gaze and hurriedly explained.
“We’re getting permission from the Empire for everything!”
“Ah. If that’s the case…”
Professor Mortum coughed and continued the explanation.
“For dark mages, having the undead realm overlap like this is a very good opportunity.”
“An opportunity to contract with powerful summoned creatures?”
“Huh?”
The dark mages gathered there showed an unexpected reaction to Lee Han’s words.
“Haha. You can’t just recklessly enter and contract with powerful summoned creatures – you need prior research.”
While you could recklessly enter and sweep around for lower-tier summoned creatures, it was difficult to use such crude methods with famous, powerful undead.
First, you had to gather data about that undead and carefully investigate how to make contact and what kind of contract was possible.
‘Is Perkuntra not that powerful of an existence?’
“Something else is more important than contracts.”
“What kind of…?”
“Everything.”
Professor Mortum moistened his throat with juice and said.
“Soil, bones embedded in the soil, mushrooms growing on those bones, insects eating those mushrooms, trees where those insects grow… Everything in the undead realm makes good materials and reagents. Cough. Normally there are many restrictions making it difficult to collect, but during overlaps it’s a different story.”
“Of course, you can’t just dig up anything. You need a discerning eye.”
“If you’re really lucky, you could live comfortably for a year with just one item.”
“!”
Lee Han’s eyes lit up at this suddenly interesting topic.
“To that extent?”
“Yeah. Most of what comes out are reagents only dark mages use, but occasionally there are reagents other mages use or materials nobles covet. Those prices skyrocket. Diret here is a legend. When he was a 2nd year, he found Eternal Summer Grass…”
Lee Han looked at Diret with several times stronger respect than usual.
Of course, Diret felt more bewildered than pleased.
‘He’s looking at me like that because of this?’
“…Anyway, even though this looks good, entering an overlapped undead realm is quite dangerous. It would be difficult for anyone who doesn’t know how to deal with undead, unless they’re a dark mage. 1st years are usually a bit…”
“As the Professor mentioned, if you give me the opportunity, I’ll do my absolute best.”
The upperclassmen nodded at Lee Han’s words.
Above all, since Professor Mortum had vouched for him, there was no reason to stop him.
“Will he really be okay…?”
“But what exactly happened with the Frost Giant King? That’s the one that caused that blizzard last time, right?”
“I thought Senior Cohorti got cursed out thoroughly and resolved it.”
Lee Han, who had been listening, suddenly felt puzzled and asked.
“But seniors. Have you perhaps heard anything about… basilisks, or mages from the Doin family, or ghouls… anyway, things like that?”
“Huh? I just arrived three days ago.”
“I don’t really go around town much.”
“I was just reading books in my lodging – did something happen?”
Lee Han was moved.
There were few people as humble and comforting as dark mages!
* * *
“…I really don’t usually say things like this. I hope you don’t misunderstand.”
Yoanen spoke carefully.
“Aren’t you taking on too many things right now?”
“Pardon? Is that so?”
Lee Han, who had been carefully melting and extracting milky white metal with green flames, asked in surprise.
“I actually thought the past few weeks have been rather leisurely since the Professors haven’t been coming…”
“…Right. Let’s just continue with the extraction.”
When a person meets someone crazier than themselves, they tend to become relatively normal.
Yoanen would normally say ‘Let’s focus on work a bit’ when an assistant talked, but…
‘Honestly, I’m curious…!’
Just from what she’d heard directly from Lee Han, his schedule included not only magic studies but also work at Puyo’s Wand Workshop and a visit to the undead realm, and adding what she’d heard through rumors, there was everything from the professors’ midday brawl to subjugating the King of Ghouls.
Yoanen normally didn’t think about anything else when working, but this case sparked curiosity she’d never had before.
“Shall we stop here? Let’s call the workshop’s alchemists and have a meal together…”
“Ah. There are impurities in the components. I think we need to do it again.”
“…This level might be okay?”
It was such an amazing statement that Yoner would have fainted if he’d heard it, but Lee Han shook his head.
“No.”
“We could do it after eating…”
“That won’t do. If we do that, there will be waste in the extraction.”
Yoanen briefly glared at her past self who had taught all of this so thoroughly.
Then she walked back and called a servant.
“Excuse me?”
“Yes, Lady Yoanen.”
“Go call Yoner.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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